Four data-based models of the magnetospheric magnetic field were tested for the degree of their consistency with a static balance between the magnetic and plasma stresses. To that end, best fit distributions of the plasma sheet pressure and its anisotropy were derived in the midnight meridian plane, using two specific forms of the particle distribution function. The tailward limit of the modeling region was placed at R = 20 R(E), where the condition of pressure balance with the tail lobe field was used to avoid the multiplicity of solutions of the force balance equation. Best fit solutions were derived by minimizing the rms difference between the magnetic and plasma stress vectors over a set of points within the model plasma sheet at distances 5